I said this on Twitter, but it feels pretty surreal to watch Jason Kidd make all these small, ingenious plays to rescue possessions on either end of the floor. He’s excelled at the basic stuff like hitting his open threes and moving the ball and staying in front of his man and stuff, but I’m especially enjoying all this little sh*t that used to be so infuriating when he played against the Knicks. The wily old coot jumps passing lanes in such a timely, casual manner that you almost feel embarrassed for the interceptee. He’s shown a knack for drawing fouls in dicey scenarios. He keeps looking off open men only to find opener men seconds later. Oh, and the guy hit TWO driving (well, maybe not driving. Coasting, maybe. Ghost-riding?) layups. Kidd was a key cog in both the ball movement and the halfcourt defense, and he added all those little tricks and treats to boot. Great game.

I loved the Kidd move at the time because of his ability to play off of Melo and make catch and shoot jumpers, something I’ve been begging for for years. But as Seth points out it’s the other things that I’ve loved since the first preseason game. What I find upsetting are people who can recognize great basketball, and thus want to focus on Kidd’s age and contract. In the last two games he has made two consecutive impact plays: against Miami it was a steal that led to a fast break bucket and yesterday it was saving the ball out of bounds leading to a made field goal on the ensuing possession. Impact plays. Who the hell cares about next year or the year after. Kidd, by the way, plays at a pace that he can sustain, I believe. Kidd’s 25 minutes were as complete and effective as any yesterday. I’m interested to see how he responds in the early back-to- back.